Walking In The Light Of God’s Love

Mother’s Day

Anniversary

Introduction

There are two ditches that we as humans typically fall into - 1. We tend to think of ourselves more highly than we should. 2. We tend to think of ourselves more lowly than we should.

Both of these ditches are dangerous and lead into all types of sin and despair. God doesn’t want us in either of these ditches.

The first one - I tend to think more highly of myself than I should - happens often. I see on Facebook or find out through the grapevine that a group of my friends got together and I wasn’t invited. Now immediately in my heart, I get upset. Why didn’t they invite me? Don’t they know I’m the life of the party. How dare they have a get together and not invite the most important person…me?

The second one - shows up for me in my own inner dialogue and can certainly come from that same situation. I find out my friends had a get together and I wasn’t invited. Well, that figures. Why would they invite me anyway? I’m such a Debbie Downer. No one really likes me anyhow. I’m just an unlovable person.

The truth in the matter may be that I was invited and it was on one of those 20 people group texts and I didn’t bother to read it all because I was busy. Either way, the problem is still the same. Either I think of myself to highly or don’t see myself properly either way.

What I’m really getting at today is going to be this second problem and the heart of it - the question that is deep rooted in us - Am I really loved?

This was highlighted to me this week as I found a band that somehow got saved into my Spotify list and have really enjoyed listening to them, they are called the Red Clay Strays and they have a song called “Wanna Be Loved”. Listen to the second verse…

They say that faith can move a mountain But I'm built for the climb So tell me, am I faithful or just too stubborn? Tell me, what will I find At the peak, at the top, at the end of the line? And at the end of my life Oh, tell me how my climb will be judged

I just wanna be loved I just wanna be loved Can you tell me I'm worthy or important? Am I working hard enough? Oh, I just wanna be loved I just wanna be loved

Now, I have to be honest, this song hits home with me. Now, I don’t know if its because of growing up in a broken home or because of the betrayals I went through in my early 20s or maybe…maybe its a deep seeded thing that God has put into all of us…a desire to be loved?

Today we are continuing our sermon series on 1st John called True Christianity, walking in the light. And today I want us to spend some time walking in the light of God’s love. This is one of the major themes of John’s letter to be loved and to give love.

So turn with me to…

Main Text

1 John 4:7–12 ESV

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

At the end of verse 8, we get one of the biggest statements in the Bible giving us a glimpse into who God really is…God is love. In other words…

Love Is God’s Primary Identity

Love is the main way God reveals himself to us - There are many ways that God reveals himself to us. He is kind, gracious, merciful and mighty. He is just. He is giving. He is our provider. There are so many ways to describe him, yet one way rises above all. He is love. We see this clearly in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The primary way God interacts with man is love - Jesus interacted with people in love. Now, for people like the Pharisee’s it was a tough love. A love that calls people to repentance. With the outcasts, the prostitutes and the tax collectors, it was a compassionate love. He saw them. He heard them. He also called them to repentance.

Everything God does is based in relationship - God has always worked with mankind in this way, in the garden and in the wilderness, you see the love God has for his people. He rescues them from the snake and he saves them from Pharoah. He creates covenantal agreements with them that are the basis for his relationship with them.

Love is From God (v.7) - The reason everything he does is based in relationship is because love comes from God. It’s like a tube of toothpaste. If you were to squeeze God, love is what would come out of him. The overflow of his heart is always love. Love issues forth from God like a river that never ends.

Intimacy With God Is Marked By Love (v8) - How do you know that you know God? Because you love. The marker of intimacy is that you love others. It’s like you can’t help but love others because of the love that you have received from God overflows from you to those around you. Love is contagious in that way.

Hate marks our lack of relationship - To continue the theme of 1st John, when we hate others, we are showing our lack of relationship with the Father. We don’t have a true relationship with God if what is coming out of us is love. Because if you are in his presence, the love that flows out of him is going to overflow into others. That’s the principle.

Love is the primary way he is known - Love so accurately defines God that it is the primary way that you know him. He is known because of his great love for us. It’s evident and it overflows to others.

With all of that in mind, I want to give us three things that God’s love does in relationship to us. God’s love is never quiet. He really loves you. His love is always doing something. It’s always moving towards you. It’s never stagnant. So what is it doing? Here are three things. The first thing is…

God’s Love Pursues Us

Love is revealed (v.9) - Love must be revealed. Love cannot stay hidden. It is revealed through an action. Love is a verb, so that means its doing something. God’s love reveals itself. It’s not a mystery. God loves you and he reveals that to you by his actions. It’s shown to us. He sent Jesus.

It is revealed through pursuit (v.9) - God sent his Son. He pursued us. God’s love is revealed to us or as John says, it was made manifest, it became clear, it was unveiled. We can see God’s love clearly through his supreme act of love - Sending Jesus, aka pursuing us. He sent Jesus to chase down or to pursue the one sheep that had strayed. You are that sheep.

We all want to be pursued - We all have a desire to be pursued by someone, unless it’s the cops. We want to be pursued in friendships, work, relationships.

Pursuit in marriage - The easiest way to see this is in marriage. God uses marriage as a picture of our relationship with Him. So let’s look at that for a moment.

Women want to be pursued - For men, when dating this is one of the primary ways guys and girls connect. Men are hunters. We search out a woman and we start to pursue her. We call her, we text her. We send her roses. We are hunting for her heart. Women want that pursuit. They will sometimes play coy. They play hard to get. They make the man work for it. There is a thrill in being pursued by someone.

This pursuit pushes us toward marriage. The whole point of this pursuit is intimacy achieved through marriage. Women have a deep need to feel wanted. They want to be desired.

Men want to be pursued too - They want a woman to want them. To love and respect them. They want their wife to make them feel like a man.

Pursuing Is Done Differently Based On Gender - Women want men to pursue their bodies, but deep down what they really want first is for men to pursue their heart. Chase after them emotionally and mentally and the physical part will follow closely behind. Men are the opposite. If in marriage, you pursue them physically, the emotional part will come along with it. But both people want to be pursued in a marriage.

Pursuit requires initiative - God takes the initiative to pursue us. He knew that we wouldn’t pursue him. We are broken. We don’t have even our own best interests at heart. We reject him, yet God pursues us.

God takes the initiative and makes the first move as he pursues people who have rejected him, in order to rescue, redeem, and restore them to a relationship with him.

John Cartwright

Pursuit has a purpose - God is not just pursuing us because he has nothing better to do or he is bored or who knew that you were one of the few that would respond to him. He pursues us with purpose. But what is his purpose? Why does he pursue us?

He pursues us to rescue us. We are lost. We are utterly helpless. We cannot save ourselves. God knows that and he pursues us while we we are still enemies.

Romans 5:10 ESV

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

He pursues us so that we might live through him - When we are born again, we become a new creation in Christ and we can now live a life of freedom from bondage and sin through Jesus. He pursues us with this in mind. Verse 9 says he sent his son into the world, so that we might live through him. He pursued us to bring us true life.

God’s Love Purchases Us

This Pursuit Is Revealed With A Purchase (v.10) - Love has to act. God’s love acted towards us in the propitiation of our sins. He purchases us as his own in his atoning sacrifice on the cross.

1 Corinthians 6:20 ESV

For you were bought with a price…

He saw our condition - The Bible tells us that what we have earned by our sins is death. That’s the price you have to pay for sin. God saw you in your sins, while you were still his enemies and he pursued you. He sent his Son for you.

He was moved with compassion - His compassion forces him to act. He is love, so he cannot help but to respond in love, it’s part of his character. But the payment had to be settled. He couldn’t just ignore his justice. He needed to satisfy the payment that sin demands.

He sent His son to pay the price. Jesus died on a cross for your sins. God’s love pursued you, and then he purchases you with his death on the cross. His blood is the payment for your sins.

His Sacrifice Proves His Love (v.10) - John says that God’s love is shown to us in this sacrificial death. He sticks his money where his mouth is. He proves his love for us by paying the ultimate price. He sacrifices himself on the cross.

All Love Requires Sacrifice - I believe that all true love requires a sacrifice. You may not die literally, but you have to die to yourself if you truly want to love others well. It’s the same for God. If you truly want to love him in return, that means you have to die to yourself. It requires sacrifice.

In other words, we easily deceive ourselves that we love God unless our love is frequently put to the test, and we must show our preferences not merely with words but with sacrifice.

John Piper

God Wants Our Surrender. He owns us. He purchased us by his blood. Our role is now to surrender to Him. Lord, what do you want to do with my life? How can I serve you? I am yours.

God’s Love Propels Us

If God so loves us, we also should love others (v.11) - The point that John is making in all of us this is that God’s love for us should be the motivator for us to love others, specifically our brothers.

God’s love never rests, neither should ours - He is tying our love for others to who God is and how God acts. We should be like him. God’s love is never dormant. It’s not taking a week off. It’s always moving. Always doing something. Our love should be the same.

God’s love pursues us, we should pursue others - Most people want to be pursued, but the only way for that to logically happen is if we are pursuing others ourselves. We MUST pursue others in friendship and in service.

Help them to feel loved

Help them feel wanted

Help them know they are not alone

Our actions reveal God in us - John is telling us that its not enough to just talk about loving others, we have to do it. God’s love propels us to action. Inaction tells us that we don’t actually know God. If we knew him, our actions would reveal that. Our actions show us what our true loves are. Some of us love money, others of us our careers, others of us are self-centered, for others its power or respect. But our actions are what reveal that, not our words.

Our actions perfect His love in us (v.12) - This seems backwards, but us acted the way that Jesus acts actually does something in us. His love towards us is perfected (or think completed) in us by our acts of love. As we love others, God’s love fills us to completion. We are perfected by our love for others.

Conclusion

For many of us we need a greater revelation of God’s love in our lives. We tend to think of ourselves as not worthy, too broken, too damaged to receive God’s love. We all just wanna be loved. As we sing this last song, I pray that God will reveal to you how much God loves you.

For others, we need to put our love into action. So my prayer for you as we sing this song is that God would convict your heart. You have received God’s love, you need to give it to others in a tangible way.